David Vetter the Bubble Boy Interview (September 23, 1981)

Voiceover: An overview of David, the bubble baby/boy, that has a rare immune system disorder, his life, and his upcoming move from the hospital to his family’s home. Footage: The outside of the Texas Children’s Hospital; David in his bubble; David learning; David playing outside in a special suit designed by NASA; footage of Texas from KTRK Houston.
Reporter: Rodriguez, Sylvan (ABC News)
David Phillip Vetter (September 21, 1971 - February 22, 1984)[1] was an American who was a prominent sufferer of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), a hereditary disease which dramatically weakens the immune system. Individuals born with SCID are abnormally susceptible to infections, and exposure to typically innocuous pathogens can be fatal. Vetter was referred to as "David, the bubble boy" by the media, as a reference to the complex containment system used as part of the management of his SCID. Vetter's surname was not revealed to the general public until 10 years after his death in order to preserve his family's privacy.
In his first years of life he lived mostly at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, Texas. As he grew older, he lived increasingly at home with his parents and older sister Katherine in Dobbin, Texas. He died in 1984, at the age of 12.
Vetter's parents were Carol Ann Vetter and David Joseph Vetter, Jr. Their first son, David Joseph Vetter III, was also born with SCID and died at seven months old. The Vetters, who had a daughter, decided to proceed with another pregnancy. Their third child, David Phillip Vetter, was born on September 21, 1971.
After he was placed in a sterile chamber, Vetter was touched only through special plastic gloves attached to the walls of the chamber, which was kept inflated by air compressors that were so loud that communication with David was difficult. His parents and medical team, which included Dr. John Montgomery, sought to provide him as normal a life as possible, including a formal education, and a television and playroom inside the sterile chamber. About three years after Vetter's birth, the treatment team built an additional sterile chamber in his parents' home in Conroe, Texas, and a transport chamber so that Vetter could spend periods of two to three weeks at home, with his sister and friends for company.
When Vetter was four years old, he discovered that he could poke holes in his bubble using a butterfly syringe that was left inside the chamber by mistake. At this point, the treatment team explained to him what germs were and how they affected his condition. As he grew older, he became aware of the world outside his chamber and expressed an interest in participating in what he could see outside the windows of the hospital and via television.[5]
In 1977, researchers from NASA used their experience with the fabrication of space suits to develop a special suit that would allow Vetter to get out of his bubble and walk in the outside world. The suit was connected to his bubble via an eight-foot (2.5 m) long cloth tube and although cumbersome, it allowed him to venture outside without serious risk of contamination. Vetter was initially resistant to the suit, and although he later became more comfortable wearing it, he used it only seven times. He outgrew the suit and never used the replacement one provided for him by NASA.[6]
Death[edit source]
Approximately $1.3 million was spent on Vetter's care, but scientific study failed to produce a true "cure" and no donor match was identified. Vetter later received a bone marrow transplant from his sister Katherine. While his body did not reject the transplant,[4] he became ill with infectious mononucleosis after a few months.[7] He died on February 22, 1984, from Burkitt lymphoma at age 12. The autopsy revealed that Katherine's bone marrow contained traces of a dormant virus, Epstein-Barr, which was undetectable in the pre-transplant screening.[8]
He was buried at Conroe Memorial Park, Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas, on February 25, 1984, next to his older brother, David Joseph Vetter III.[citation needed]
Legacy[edit source]
A Conroe ISD elementary school which opened in 1990 in The Woodlands in unincorporated Montgomery County, Texas, was named David Elementary after Vetter.[9]
The Paul Simon song "The Boy in the Bubble" was inspired by Vetter's story.[citation needed]
Aftermath[edit source]
Vetter's parents later divorced. His father became the mayor of Shenandoah, Texas. His mother married Kent Demaret, a magazine reporter who had written about her son. Vetter's psychologist, Mary Murphy, wrote a book about Vetter's case that was to be published in 1995; however, its initial publication was blocked by his parents and Baylor College of Medicine.[10] The book was published in 2019 under the title Bursting the Bubble: The Tortured Life and Untimely Death of David Vetter.[11]

[@matthewmann8969]

Good thing for some portability and moveability yeah.